


Logistics

by Ringshadow



Series: Trickster Souls [8]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Sentinel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, Justin's endless appetite, M/M, Mysterious SHIELD missions in Brazil, Pepper is perceptive, Sentinel/Guide Bonding, Tony can't read laundry heiroglyphics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-11
Updated: 2014-02-11
Packaged: 2018-01-11 23:38:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1179302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ringshadow/pseuds/Ringshadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's one thing to connect, it's another to get comfortable living that way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Logistics

“You have no excuse.”

 

“Are you under the impression that I ever did my own laundry?”

 

“Then who did it?”

 

“.. I’m really not sure. I think Pepper took care of it.”

 

“Well she has better things to do with her life, like run your damn company. You wear expensive clothing all the time. You have no excuse for not understanding laundry hieroglyphics.”

 

“Man, you’re prissy about this.”

 

“I like to take care of my clothes. JARVIS, who does his laundry?”

 

“There is a service that picks up when I request it sir, usually cued by Miss Potts asking.”

 

“Yeah, no. We’re changing that around a bit. Everything we can do here we will do here. Obviously dry cleaning still has to go out but we can probably reduce that down to weekly. Okay what does this mean?”

 

“No trigonometry?”

 

“Poster on the wall. Use it.”

 

“..No bleach? How does that mean no bleach?”

 

Pepper clapped a hand over her mouth. She’d been leaning next to the laundry room door shamelessly eavesdropping and she can’t stand it anymore, moving to stand in the doorway and taking in the scene. Tony’s laundry room had been mildly rearranged, the folding table moved to accommodate a drying rack and a pants press (Justin’s, she supposed). A large poster had been hung over the folding table, simple black and white with colored columns that explained laundry symbols. Tony was frowning at the tag of one of his dress shirts and staring at the poster interchangeably, in jeans and an Iron Maiden t-shirt.

 

Justin was standing at the ironing board, looking resplendent in Armani Exchange jeans and a heavily tailored red button down shirt, which he’d left untucked and cuffed the sleeves to his elbows. He was wearing battered CAT boots, steel toes she supposed and was standing at an ironing board giving her a bemused look. Which was when she realized that the majority of his hair was gone.

 

“You got a haircut.” She said by way of greeting.

 

“I took it off.” He replied, lifting a hand to scratch through it. “That executive haircut was horrible. How’s it look?”

 

“Better, actually.” She stepped into the room and looked around, before looking at Justin. “Do I want to know how you got Tony into the laundry room?”

 

“Sniveling. Lots and lots of sniveling.”

 

“For the record he did not consult me about the haircut thing.” Tony remarked, taking collar stays out of a shirt and setting them into a bowl that was marked for such, also Justin’s work Pepper had to assume. “I about jumped out of my skin.”

 

“Deal with it.” Justin had returned to his ironing.

 

“Also, he can so cook. He’s been lying to us all.”

 

“Yeah, I picked up on that. You two seem better.” She decided, looking between them.

 

“Yeah we decided shared brain space was actually a pretty good idea so that happened, and now it’s just figuring out the actual logistics of the thing.” Justin’s iron hissed as he propped it on the edge of the ironing board, lifting the shirt to look at it with a hum then hanging it up, putting it on a nearby bar that now had a divider down the center.

 

Pepper blinked. “Wait, what? You two, uh?”

 

“Brain space was right, so we hard lined together.” Tony replied, managing to get even more preoccupied with his shirts.

 

“Are you two supposed to be so casual about it?”

 

“As opposed to what?” Justin wanted to know, already working on the next clean shirt with the easy swift motions of someone who was very used to ironing his own shirts. “Nothing else about us has been anything like how the media shows it, might as well continue the trend. We were watching Lord of War.”

 

She looked back and forth between them for a moment. “Right. Well, that means we’ll have to make some announcements and work on the actual formalities of this company partnership.”

 

“Give us a few days so we really know how this works, if you can. We haven’t applied for the paperwork change or anything yet.”

 

There was a brief slightly awkward silence, Justin trying very hard to focus on his ironing and Tony giving Pepper a look that hovered between worried and looking for words. “I suppose we should just talk about this.” She walked fully into the room and sat on the folding table, crossing her legs at the knee. “Because I know you two have been sleeping in the same bed and I’m not comfortable climbing into bed with you both so I can have some cuddle time with Tony.”

 

“Ah, yes, the awkward and undefined situation.” Justin said.

 

Pepper stared at him then looked at Tony who shrugged a bit sheepishly. “I didn’t know how else to put it. What was I supposed to say, you and I made out after he nearly blew us both up?”

 

“Hey. It wasn’t me, it was a jackass who lied to me and used me. Which I should have seen coming and probably would have if I wasn’t drugged to the gills.”

 

“Right, whatever, not the topic at hand.” Tony replied. “Is this a polite way of breaking up with me because you’re not comfortable with tends to go down between sentinels and their guides?”

 

“Honestly, yes. I’m not comfortable thinking of you like that, Justin.”

 

He paused, iron in midair. “Okay did some threesome implication just float past me without me realizing?”

 

“That makes two of us.” Tony had a hand and finger raised. “Wait just a minute now…”

 

“I didn’t walk into this blind. I knew that when you found your sentinel we’d probably be done. Platonic sentinel-guide bonds are really rare and mostly between bonded sibling dynamics. I also read a lot of relationship accounts where things like this happened.” She paused. “I love you Tony, a lot, but I didn’t want to set myself up for heartbreak either, so I’ve tried very hard to stay somewhat at arm’s length. By the way, you two just winced at the same time.”

 

“I never meant to hurt you. You’ve all I had for... a long time.” Tony stepped in toward her, clasping her shoulders. “I know I’m a mess but I started trying to change and pay attention better, for you.”

 

“I know. You’re horrible at it.” She smiled a little. “But I know you tried, and that was enough, but I’m not your sentinel. I can’t be that, I’m not part of your brain like he is right?”

 

“Well. I mean. I.”

 

“Just smile, nod, maybe miss me a little and know I’m still your friend.”

 

“The sheer grace of this makes me want to date you. Good lord.” Justin said. “You’re all class, Pepper.”

 

She only nodded, giving Tony a hug when he stepped in. “You’ll be fine. Hell, you’ll be fantastic because you finally have someone who can keep up with you.”

 

“Hey, don’t sell yourself short. I’m basically worthless without you.” Tony managed a ghost of a smile as he stepped away.

 

She hopped off the laundry table and booped his nose. “And don’t you forget it, sweetheart. So, you need a few days to figure out how this works?”

 

“We’d appreciate it.” Justin admitted. “Just so we don’t come out in public and embarrass ourselves. Or at least not immediately.”

 

“Your realism is refreshing.” Pepper admitted. “I’ll get everything as set up as I can. It’s going to be interesting.”

 

“But worth it.” Tony smiled. “Thanks.” He watched her leave the laundry room and rubbed his face with both hands, sighing when Justin stepped in behind him and hugged him. “Hey.”

 

“Hey. You okay?”

 

“No, man.” He turned to tuck his face into Justin’s chest. “Not really.”

 

Justin nodded, keeping his arms around him. “Let’s finish this up and get out of the house for a little while.”

 

“Mmn. And do what?”

 

“Let’s go to the range for a while then get lunch.” He blinked when Tony pulled back and stared at him. “Oh, hell. You do know how to use a gun, right?”

 

“Well I mean. Yes.”

 

Justin pulled fully back and folded his arms, rattling his fingers on his upper arms. “Okay, now tell me the truth.”

 

“I used to make weapons! Of course I know how to use a gun!”

 

“Yeah. Sure. Range. Now.” Justin moved, unplugging the iron and setting it aside carefully so it can’t start a fire before grabbing Tony and dragging him out of the room.

* * *

 

 

“Is this really this important?” Tony wanted to know. They’d ended up at Justin’s company (to the shock of the receptionist), and now they were in some sublevel that was apparently just a gun range, Justin using a thumbscan to open a large heavy cabinet on the wall.

 

“Is me learning to fight from your chauffer that important? Besides, this is a damn sight worse, in fact it’s a god damn disgrace. You used to make superweapons and you can’t shoot a gun.” Justin replied over his shoulder, opening the cabinet doors to reveal an assortment of handguns and ammo boxes.

 

“I can shoot a gun!”

 

“Really.” Justin picked a gun off the rack and dropped it into Tony’s hands. “Prove it. Load it up and put some rounds downrange.”

 

Tony paused, looking at the gun in his hands for a moment then looking at Justin.  “So if I just admit that I can barely shoot these damn things can we move past you glaring at me?”

 

“Aw, Tony.” Justin sighed and took the gun back. “You know I’m not actually upset at you, right? I just don’t understand why you don’t know how to do this.”

 

“We can’t all be sharpshooters.”

 

“But we can look semi-competent. You build multi-million dollar super weapons.” Justin put the gun back in his hands. “It’s loaded and the safety is on.” He held up a matching one. “These are Colt 1911s.”

 

“Not going with one of your own guns?”

 

“No way, we’re starting with an industry standard.” Justin stepped up with Tony, watching his guide’s eyes go sharp and calculating as Justin walked him through the basic operation of the gun, making sure he understood how to load and clear a jam before they put safety gear on and started firing.

 

Tony’s first three shots punched into the corner of the paper over the black target silhouette and the groaned, staring at it. “This is a lot harder without a HUD.”

 

“Actually, no. That’s good.” Justin said thoughtfully, looking at Tony.

 

“What? How?”

 

“You didn’t flinch or blink, at all. Frankly, the hard part’s over.” Justin set his gun on the table and stepped in behind Tony, gently adjusting his stance. “Now it’s just the easy part. Walking your aim in.”

* * *

 

 

“Have you noticed?”

 

“You need to finish that question for me to understand it.” Justin said, digging into his fajitas. “I’m not quite to the reading-your-mind level, man.”

 

“We’re, like, moving differently around each other.” Tony has to think about how to explain it, digging into his own. They both had steak fajitas because Justin had gone on a rant about fajita means beef and ‘chicken fajita’ being nothing but a horrible lie. Tony hadn’t argued, he likes beef fajitas. “I don’t have to look for you. I just know where you are.”

 

“Well that’s supposed to happen right?” He said once he’d swallowed roughly. “We’re subdivisions of each other right?”

 

“Yeah but I don’t have to think about it. That’s weird.”

 

“You don’t think about where your arm is either, you just know.” Justin considered. “Maybe part of the link is awareness of each other’s body maps so we have that level of awareness?”

 

“Ohh. That’s interesting.” Tony was thoughtful. “Maybe there’s something about that in all that material Agent unloaded on us.”

 

“We can go through it later. So, I’ve been thinking about the company side of this. You’re not CEO anymore, Pepper is right?”

 

“Right, I’m still a corporate VIP. I’d say I own the company but we’re publically traded. More accurately I’m head of R&D or something.”

 

“I love that you don’t even know.” Justin snorted. “Leave the business stuff to Pepper and I, and I’ll also try to oversee all the weapons-related lines. You have some lines still mothballed right?”

 

“Right, you want them?”

 

“Oh yeah. You want all my tech-related lines?”

 

“Is that a trick question?” Tony smiled.

 

“I figure I work over the machined stuff, that’s what I’m good at. I’m shit at programming, my programming has a lot of vulnerabilities.”

 

“Yeah, I remember Vanko ripping up your shit right and left. You willing to run my OS?”

 

“We’ll see, you’ll have to take it up with IT and they worship your nerdy ass I’m sure.”

 

Tony blinked, chewing on fajita. “How is my ass nerdy? Wouldn’t my brain be nerdy?”

 

“All of you is nerdy.” He snorted, flicking a piece of bellpepper across the table with his fork then throwing up his arms in victory when Tony caught it in his mouth. “Hell yeah!”

 

Tony laughed even as he chewed, shaking his head. “And somehow we’re allowed to sit at the grown up table.” He found his fork and launched a piece of beef across the table.

 

It went wide but Justin leaned to the side and got it. “Hah. And speak for yourself, I sit at the kid’s table when I go home for the holidays.”

 

“Why does that not surprise me at all. We’re still going to crash your nephew’s party right?”

 

“I don’t know if it’s crashing if we’re invited, per se.” Justin considered. “Yeah I want to. Mom and dad will be there, I’m trying not to let that dissuade me. I need to just confront them.”

 

“I’m stunned they haven’t called you.”

 

“They’re in their upper sixties and not very tech savvy, thank god. The more stable I am when that conversation goes down, the better.”

 

“Know what I think? I think we should go get fitted for new suits and do a press conference and a photoshoot.”

 

“So do you always change topic without warning?”

 

“Yes. So do you.” Tony grinned then blinked when his phone started ringing, digging it out and dropping it on the table. “Hey, Agent, you still in Brazil?”

 

“Why do you persist in putting me on speakerphone?” Phil replied. “We’re back stateside, if you must know.”

 

“Afternoon, Agent.” Justin said once he’d swallowed. “What’s the occasion?”

 

“Stark called me with some concerns regarding you, Mr. Hammer, I’m just wondering if they’re resolved.”

 

“Not cool.” Tony grumbled.

 

“Wait, seriously?” Justin’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s… adorable. Have they resolved?” He looked at Tony for this.

 

“You were angry and shoving me away. I didn’t know how to fix it so I went to the one sentinel/guide pair I trusted not to fuck me over when it came to advice.” He sighed. “Yeah, we’re cool here. Where’s Clint?”

 

“In a hospital bed until I say otherwise.” Phil’s voice increased in volume on the last half of the sentence, and Clint’s voice made itself known in vibrant swearing and threats of blackmail. “He’ll be fine. Gotta go.” The line went dead.

 

“Those two are half scary, half hilarious.” Justin said after a beat.  “And I’m about eighty-five percent certain they travel the world to kill people.”

 

“Or glare at them.” Tony sighed. “I’m not going to claim to understand them.”

 

“They give a fuck about you. That’s what matters.” Justin frowned at his empty plate and the empty skillet next to his plate, then looked contemplatively at Tony’s still half full skillet.

 

“No. I’m still eating and I will stab your hand with a fork if you go for my food.” Seeing this wasn’t exactly a good dissuasion, Tony wove the waiter down and asked them to bring Justin another round of fajitas.

 

“This sucks. I hate not being able to savor food.” Justin pouted, taking apart an empty flour tortilla and eating it while he waited.

 

“You can savor it, you just have to eat more to do so. I’m just glad your appetite’s where it should be.”

 

“It’s ridiculous.” He muttered this. “The human body isn’t designed to eat this many calories, not normally.”

 

“You ever read the theories about sentinels and guides and the evolutionary chain?” Tony wanted to know. “It’s fascinating, actually. I did some, just trying to understand.”

 

“Only casually. It’s interesting to me, because science doesn’t have a good explanation but at least accounts for us existing.” Unlike Justin’s brush with religion, though certain branches (particularly Catholics) insisted that a higher intelligence was the only reason something like them could exist.

 

The only popular theory about sentinels and guides is that they were an offshoot on the evolutionary tree. As far back as written history went, so did accounts of sentinels and their guides. Even cave paintings seemed to, certainly the Aztecs, Babylonians, Chinese dynasties and Egyptians did, among many others. They went by many names, but the accounts remained consistent. The trouble was, on a skeletal level, it was very difficult to tell a sentinel from anyone else. Modern MRI technology had, in the last decade or so, finally been able to highlight differences in the brain that accounted for the talents of guides and the mental side of sentinels. That, combined with a few decades of research into the different chemistry sentinels used to burn through food, definitely pointed to something biologically apart from the rest of humans.

 

The problem was, sentinel population tended to stay consistent. Always a relatively small population of the world, never going extinct but never increasing sharply in numbers. And while there were a suggestions that bloodlines could carry the trait, there were also a lot of instances where families that never had a sentinel or guide suddenly ended up with one. While sentinels staying low population because they were an outright burden to food resources made sense, there was little understanding in how that population control happened. It all seemed to point to biological pressure, like some amphibians and fish changing sex if necessary.

 

In the end, it made some sense. A tribal group might have one sentinel, that had the ability to see trouble coming, and protect the tribe if necessary. Demonstration videos in the US military pitting an equally trained sentinel versus a dozen or more normal soldiers had ended in the sentinel coming out on top, even unarmed. But where the keys were that made someone a sentinel was still unknown, let alone how there was always a guide that matched them, though that was likely more best-fit than actual fate.

 

Science not being actually all that interested in fate.

 

Another round of fajita filling arrived and Justin cheerfully fell on it like a starving man. “I’m not going to let myself worry about it, I don’t think.”

 

“No?” Tony had sat back at this point, holding a neatly folded burrito in one hand.

 

“My color’s been better if nothing else. I’ve always been pretty wan and sickly looking.”

 

He blinked once then snapped and pointed at Justin. “Spray tan. At the races.”

 

“Bingo. I got sick of people asking if I had the flu, faking some color made that stop even if they decided I was a spray tanning douchebag instead.”

 

“I still can’t believe I never figured it out. It kind of pisses me off, actually. Looking back, it’s so goddamn obvious. All the pieces of the puzzle where there, I just wasn’t looking.”

 

Justin paused, looking at Tony. “Hey. It’s okay. I didn’t exactly want the puzzle solved, and I would have outright denied it if you had confronted me about it.”

 

Tony shook his head, almost restless. “No. No man. We should have connected years ago, and don’t you dare say it’s your fault. You were just trying to get by.”

 

“In a perfect world we should have connected half a lifetime ago. We didn’t. Now we just have to try to do well with the time that’s left.” When Tony nodded Justin returned to his food. “So, are we getting fitted for suits today like you mentioned?”

 

He responded by getting his phone back out and dialing, chattering away in Italian with his tailor. Justin just shook his head, managing to nearly finish the second plate of fajitas before he was full.

* * *

 

 

Justin couldn’t lie, it felt good to be back in suits, felt good to feel like he was back at the helm and in control of his life.

 

The few days he spent with Tony settling with him made him confident enough that he was able to smile at the press during the conference, and it was an easy real smile. He and Tony had started to settle together, bit by bit, work easily in each other’s spaces. It really was like they’d annexed each other. They were always aware of where the other was, but somehow it wasn’t creepy, wasn’t overbearing.

 

It was just life and it felt natural, and it was one of the very few things in his life that ever had.

 

There was a lot of work that had to be done. Formally announcing their companies’ up and coming partnership started a shitstorm in some of the business world and in the media, for a few days at least. Justin tried to focus on his company and ensuring everyone knew there was going to be absolutely no reduction in labor force, but there was going to be openings for lateral transfers. Those opened up about two days after the announcement and Justin wasn’t very surprised when a flurry of his people immediately applied to go work for Stark.

 

He was mildly surprised that a decent number of Tony’s people applied for transfer to his company.

 

“It’ll all work out. Somehow.” He muttered this, sitting up in bed against a pillow, reading.

 

“Are you saying that to reassure yourself?” Tony called from the bathroom.

 

“Hey. I’m supposed to be the one with super hearing.” Justin retorted. Tony just laughed, walking out of the bathroom and crawling into bed. He sprawled on his side, staring at Justin through half open eyes and saying nothing. After several minutes, Justin sighed and looked at him. “Are you staring at me until I put the book down and join you?”

 

“Yes. Absolutely.”

 

He smiled and set his book on the bedside table, his glasses following and slipping down under the covers. The lights turned down without a direct cue from either of them, but he was too busy paying attention to how Tony was tucking against him and fitting his face to Justin’s neck to really care. He was clear minded, his guide was here and all too willing to turn his face up to share a soft goodnight kiss before they both settled back down.

 

Hell, even that seemed like some kind of important milestone, and he was smiling as he tucked his face to Tony’s hair and let himself drift away, first in a daze and then into peaceful slumber.

 

 


End file.
